It’s time for publicly financed, publicly developed renewable energy.
THE MISSION
Our mission is to stand up public renewable energy developers in all 50 states to build the clean power that for-profit developers are not delivering.
The Public Renewables Project is a new climate advocacy organization calling for publicly financed, publicly developed renewable energy.
We partner with labor unions, climate groups, grassroots organizations, and public finance experts to deploy public renewables in a way that lowers costs, reduces inequality, and increases worker power.
Public Renewables Deliver Speed & Scale:
Traditional for-profit models of renewable energy development are not moving fast enough.
By adding public renewable energy developers, states and cities can accelerate the transition, build projects that otherwise would not get built, cut costs for schools and communities, and deploy resources at the scale needed to meet our climate goals.
The Report
Federal climate policy is under attack, leaving states searching for ways to respond. The Connecticut Green Bank has built a public developer model that serves as a blueprint for how states can move forward on their own.
Coauthored by the Public Renewables Project, The Climate Reality Project, and Generation180, our report titled Public Option Solar for K-12 Schools shows how the Connecticut Green Bank created a “public option” for K-12 school solar: publicly financed, publicly developed projects that let schools go solar with no upfront costs and immediate savings.
Since 2015, 27% of Connecticut’s K-12 solar has been publicly developed, and 50–75% of those projects were built in low-income and disadvantaged communities in recent years. The Green Bank’s public option solar model is responsible for making Connecticut the #1 state for solar schools in the contiguous US, while saving schools tens of millions of dollars.
Connect
Our Approach
Public Financing
States can use existing institutions such as green banks and development finance agencies to provide affordable, long-term capital for clean energy, often through bond finance.
Public Development
Projects advance without the high profit requirements of private developers. By pooling projects, public developers unlock cost savings. By planning for comprehensive decarbonization rather than profit maximization, they expand scale and tackle systemic bottlenecks.
Public Benefit
Built to serve communities — especially those private developers have overlooked — by lowering energy costs for schools and neighborhoods, creating good union jobs, and ensuring the benefits of the clean energy transition serve the public good.
Public renewables can fill the gaps left by federal climate rollbacks. Public developers remain financially viable no matter who holds power in Washington. They are saving schools money, cutting pollution, and proving that states can move faster and further, regardless of federal politics.
It’s time to keep building. It’s time for public renewables.
WHO WE ARE
The Team
Jason Kowalski
Founder & Executive Director
Jason Kowalski
Founder and Executive Director
He/Him
Jason Kowalski is the Founder and Executive Director of the Public Renewables Project. Jason has a 15-year track record of connecting emerging climate policy ideas from social movements with elected officials. From concept to white paper, and draft legislation to law, Jason has brought together powerful campaign coalitions across lines of difference for legislative victories that reduce inequality and increase worker power.
Jason was part of the founding team of 350.org, where he served as Policy Director for 10 years. Jason oversaw political strategy for some of the hardest hitting climate campaigning of the last two decades including Keystone XL, fossil fuel divestment, and Standing Rock. From the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill in 2009 to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Jason has been working at the intersection of social movements and legislative politics to maximize gains for the climate movement, while weakening the power of the fossil fuel industry.
During the Biden Administration, Jason worked as Policy Director at the progressive think tank The Democracy Collaborative, uniting a diverse legislative coalition around bold economic ideas that broke with the hyper-capitalist orthodoxy of both parties. Jason’s work brought fresh ideas from social movements into the governing coalition, helping to create a new common sense on climate and economic policy. Jason’s most innovative policy development work explores solutions such as: publicly owned renewable energy, public financial institutions, green procurement, democratic economic planning, clean energy manufacturing, worker ownership, community control of land and housing, and comprehensive fossil fuel decommissioning.
Jason grew up in Buffalo, New York and holds a BA from Middlebury College. He currently lives in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington DC where you can find him zooming down the block on an e-bike with his school-aged daughter.
Hebah Kassem
SENIOR CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST
Hebah Kassem
Senior Campaign Strategist
She/Her
Hebah Kassem is a powerhouse in public health, environmental and climate justice policy, legislative affairs, and grassroots organizing. With over a decade of experience driving transformative change in Washington, D.C., she has been at the forefront of shaping bold policies and mobilizing communities for climate and social justice.
Hebah leverages her expertise to craft strategic solutions that bridge policy, advocacy, and movement-building. She has held leadership roles at Just Solutions Collective, The Sunrise Project, Sierra Club, Green New Deal Network, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, playing a pivotal role in advancing progressive policies. Her work in political strategy spans across national campaigns, helping elect progressive champions committed to justice and equity.
During her tenure at Sierra Club, Hebah led a team that successfully organized around and helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act—a historic climate investment—by working in deep collaboration with movement partners, labor unions, and frontline communities.
Hebah holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. She is a fierce advocate for policies that put people and the planet first, bringing strategic vision, political savvy, and grassroots power to every space she enters.
Gerardo Bonilla Chavez
SENIOR ADVISOR
Gerardo Bonilla Chavez
Senior Advisor
He/Him
With more than a decade of experience in public service, most recently as the Chief of Staff to Representative Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). Gererdo brings a wealth of knowledge, from navigating legislative politics, understanding the federal administration, to generally getting things done in DC. Before his tenure as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, he served in senior economic and financial services roles in both the House and Senate, including the House Small Business Committee.
Gerardo served as a political appointee during the Obama Administration at the Department of Commerce and held a post at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of State – Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inclusion Unit. Beyond his time in federal government, Gerardo has worked at the municipal and state level in Minnesota, and has managed several outreach and engagement campaigns for the Democratic-Farm and Labor party.
Gerardo holds a Master’s in Public Policy degree with a concentration in advanced policy analysis and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Minnesota.
Isabel Estevez
Senior Advisor
Isabel Estevez
Senior Advisor
She/Her
Isabel Estevez is an institutional and development economist focusing on the dynamics of economic transformations, nature-economy relationships, and green transitions. She has advised policymakers in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, as well as multilaterals and civil society organizations, on the design of transformative industrial policies. She has published widely on strategic public investment, trade, procurement, and (green) industrial strategy.
Isabel is currently the Co-Executive Director of i3T, an international think tank and non-profit consulting firm focussing on sustainable industrial development. She previously served as Deputy Director of Industrial Policy and Trade at the Roosevelt Institute’s Climate and Economic Transformation Program and Senior Policy Advisor for green industrial policy at the Sierra Club in the United States, and has advised various governments, the G20, and the World Bank, among others. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where she specialized in the use of industrial policy for economic transformation.
Isabel is a fellow at the Climate and Community Institute, a member of Common Wealth’s Green Planning Commission and Senior Research Advisor at Oxford University’s TIDE Center. Her writing and research have been published and featured in publications like Foreign Affairs, The American Prospect, Phenomenal World, Foreign Policy and Heatmap, as well as various academic publications. She has taught at the University of Cambridge and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Ben Beachy
Senior Advisor
Ben Beachy
Senior Advisor
He/They
Ben Beachy served in the White House Climate Policy Office until January 2025 as Special Assistant to the President for climate, industry, and community investment. He worked to advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s industrial strategy for the clean economy, including trade, investment, and procurement policies that foster deep emissions cuts, good union jobs, and investments in hard-hit communities.
Prior to this role, Ben spent two decades advocating for equitable industrial policies at climate, labor, and other public interest groups. That includes serving as Vice President for industrial policy at the BlueGreen Alliance – a national coalition of unions and environmental organizations – and founding and directing Sierra Club’s industrial policy program.
Now a Senior Fellow at the Global Fund for a New Economy, Ben is currently building a new project that partners with labor and community groups to craft and win a pro-affordability climate agenda. Ben hails from Mennonite roots in West Virginia and lives in Washington, D.C.
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